Voices from the Straw Mat: Toward an Ethnography of Korean Story Singing

By Chan E. Park

From its humble "straw mat" origins to its paradoxical status as a national treasure, p'ansori has survived centuries of change and remains the primary source of Korean narrative and poetic consciousness. In this innovative work, Chan Park celebrates her subject not as a static phenomenon but a living, organic tradition adapting to an ever-shifting context. Drawing on her extensive literary and performance backgrounds, Park provides insights into the relationship between language and music, singing and speaking, and traditional and modern reception. Her "performance-centered" approach to p'ansori informs the discussion of a wide range of topics, including the amalgamation of the dramatic, the narrative, and the poetic; the invocation of traditional narrative in contemporary politics; the vocal construction of gender; and the politics of preservation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082482511X
• ISBN13: 9780824825119
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.4"